


The Dragon Deaths

by Witchface



Series: Cherrybrook Chronicles [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Dragons, F/M, High School, Loss of Parent(s), M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-06-30 15:12:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15754278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witchface/pseuds/Witchface
Summary: Dragons from the Still Creek Reserve have been getting killed despite the rangers best efforts, so the call goes out through the magical community to find families to foster the endangered species. Enter Wren and Riley Riordan who have fallen on hard times while trying to make it on their own since their fathers death and their mothers disappearance. The adolescent dragons in their care are made to appear human so they can hide in plain sight and attend school with Riley.**Probably very lame, but I need to get back into the practice of writing, so why not?





	1. Chapter 1

_Honest to gods, dragons. Mother fucking dragons._

It was the sole thought twisting through Riley’s head. This was his sisters’ big solution to their money problems? Granted Riley knew that even dragon dung was quite pricey at the right markets, but fostering dragons? Taking dragons to high school?! The whole situation was ridiculous and asking for trouble.

“Ah, Mister and Misses Riordan, let me just say again, how impressed I am with your decision to take these noble creatures into your home” said a man that Riley had never seen before.  And when compared to the massive creatures behind him he was not particularly noteworthy.

“Oh, well, of course, we’re happy to help. But just checking; we do get paid for this right?” Wren was quick to respond. Riley looked at his sister, and did nothing to hide his little grin. Tactful, his sister was not.

The man snorted and nodded “Yes you will be getting $500 a week per tenant. I believe you said that you could house five?”

“Yes, that’s what I said on the phone, our house has been in the family for generations and is practically a mini mansion. It will be nice to have it full again” Wren replied. Riley could imagine the calculations forming already in Wren’s mind, they’d be able to pay all current bills this week, and would be able to pay all outstanding debts within a few months, so the only drama should come from feeding and clothing five soon-to-be-human-in-appearance dragons.

Meanwhile, Riley hadn’t taken his eyes off the two red beasts. From what Riley recalled from some of his dads’ books, he was looking at two European Reds. The larger of the two was a deep burgundy, with bronze spikes running down its spine. The other had a shorter snout and a slim build which was covered with bright red scales that shone with copper tones in the light and spikes that were a red so deep they almost appeared black. Both had black membranes covering their wings and sharp gold eyes.

“This is Taminofynn” the man gestured to large brutish dragon, “and his kin, Sierrafynn” he nodded towards the slenderer dragon. “They were sun baking and therefore quick to find, the others should be along shortly and then we can get started with the ritual and signing the last of the forms to get you on your way. If you’ll just excuse me” The man left with little fanfare.

Wren eyed the dragons warily before turning to Riley. “So, you’re definitely okay with this yeah?”

“You mean; am I okay with taking in a few endangered creatures that in the last few months have been getting mysteriously slaughtered? Protecting them by hiding them in plain sight? Protecting them by taking them with me to the hell known as high school five days a week? Essentially babysitting them until the culprits are found? Yeah I’m okay with that.” Riley shrugs. “How hard can it be?”

That was essentially the gist of it to Riley’s knowledge. In the last six months twenty dragons had been killed, which is a feat as dragons are notoriously hard to kill despite their endangered status. The magical community had tried various schemes to prevent the apparent culling but it had all been for naught. Whoever was doing this was a powerful magic user. A few weeks ago, the call had come out looking for ‘foster’ homes as it were. It was more like witness protection though.

“Wren! Riley!” a familiar voice called out. Turning around, the Riordan siblings grinned as Tony, a family friend entered the warehouse. “I heard that you two were taking in a few of my friends.” Tony had worked with their father at a few dragon reserves.

“Yeah, well the cash moneys were a big incentive” Wren grimaced. The mood suddenly plummeted.

“Right.” Tony mumbled. “I heard you guys were having some trouble since your mum went missing.” Eight months ago, their mum had simply vanished, leaving Wren to handle the house and bills and taking care of Riley, all without access to any of their parents’ money. Riley felt immense guilt at the burden that his sister had had to take on.

Their vastly depressing conversation was interrupted as the large double doors to the warehouse opened and in walked more of the massive animals. The two red dragons were bigger, standing at twice the height of a large horse, but the two dragons that entered were just as grand. One was an Asiatic breed, with a long serpentine body with four bird-like legs covered in shimmering golden scales with a mane of gold feathers and no wings. Its large mouth appeared to be smiling. It stood only a head or two higher then Riley. The other dragon was only a few feet taller again, with wings that attached to its front limbs. The icy blue of its eyes seemed almost white while the rest of its colouring was a deep black with a few silvery spines. Peeking out behind them was an animal about the size of a large dog, with bottle green shimmering fish-like scales. It had spines on the back of its legs and large webbed feet, though it seemed to be perched on its toes. It had a tangled black and green mane, though it was impossible to tell whether it was hair or feathers or sea weed. Its eyes were large, taking up most of its face and yet it was impossible to distinguish the colour as they seemed to constantly shift between yellow and green and blue as they caught the light.

“Hey boys!” Tony says, suddenly cheerful again. The black and gold dragons seem to bow in recognition while the small green one tilts its head and makes a cooing noise in the back of its throat. “Wren, Riley, let me introduce Mao Long and Loreli” Tony gestured to the gold dragon and then the black. “Oh and the little one in the back is Bronte.”

“Bronte?” Wren raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah, he communicates with weird clicking and purring sounds so we don’t know his actual name. So, he got named Bronte by one of the staff at the Rookwood reserve. He seems to like it well enough.”

“Cool, so even more boys in the house?” Riley smiles.

“Dear gods.” Wren groans.

“It’s okay Wren, you’ve got Sierra to back you up. Trust me that is all you’ll need.” Tony grinned. The slender red dragon, which Riley had somehow forgotten was in the room, swished her tail suddenly and puffed up her chest, clearly happy with the praise. “Ah, Mr Daniels is heading over, it’s about time to get this show on the road!” the man from earlier was heading over to their small group with three women behind him, all wearing the official robes of the magic council. “Riley, kiddo, you should probably wait outside while this happens.”

“What? Why?” Riley frowned.

“Well there’s about to be an R rating on this room, what with the five naked not-quite-people about to appear.” Tony said as he gestured to the waiting dragons.

“Oh.” Was all Riley managed to get out before whirling on his heel and making his way to the door, a blush staining his cheeks.  Standing in the small lounge area they had been waiting in earlier that day, Riley’s shoulders slumped. He knew they needed to do this for the money, not to mention that it was for a good cause, but to suddenly have all these new faces in their lives, around their house when Wren and Riley had barely had time to deal with the fact that their lives had gone to shit, was just absurd. He still couldn’t believe this was happening, couldn’t believe that their mother had put them in this situation, couldn’t believe she was selfish enough to run away from her family before her children had even had time to process the fact that their father had just died. Hadn’t had time to deal with their dad leaving one morning for work, never to be seen alive again. That in one afternoon while they were none the wiser, their lives were ruined. That their dad was killed by one of the creatures he loved and took care of.

That their father was killed by a dragon.


	2. Chapter 2

Riley paced back and forth, running a hand through his dark blonde hair. His scuffed trainers making a squeaking noise across the laminated floor. He considered breaking his sisters’ rules about his magic, and just summoning money to deal with their problems. Though it seemed they were going through with the scheme regardless, so being grounded probably wouldn’t be worth it. Riley shakes his head at the silly thought. He had enough magic to literally bend some aspects of reality and yet here he was sulking at the thought of what his sister would put him through if he went ahead with it.

Before he could contemplate further the doors opened and in walked Wren, Mr Daniels and a group of badly dressed teenagers. It was clear that they had been dressed in whatever had been volunteered by staff as baggy jeans were held up with worn belts or bits of string, loose t-shirts declaring the love of various landmarks and old hooded sweatshirts adorned the five not-teens.

“Hey Riley, let me introduce you to-” Wren began, but was interrupted by a blur of movement and then Riley was wrapped up in a bear hug. He looked down at the short boy who looked to be no older then 15, who had large doe eyes of an indescribable colour peering at him through long dark lashes, set in an androgynous face. The boy, who Riley guessed had been the small dragon known as Bronte, gave him a small smile, making dimples appear on his cheeks.

“Bronte? Good to meet you too, buddy.” Riley said with a raised eyebrow, patting the small boy on the back.

“He’s been isolated for a long time, you’ve got to excuse him” said a tall Chinese boy. He was lanky with wild dark hair, sparkling amber coloured eyes and a cheeky grin. “I’m now going by Miles I believe” Miles turned towards Mr Daniels who gave a short nod. “I’ve been under this particular spell before so I have some experience with the human world; hopefully I won’t be too much of a bother.”

Riley smiled back at the boy and reached out and shook his hand, though it was difficult while still having a body wrapped around his own.

“Here, allow me.” Another boy approached and carefully extracted Bronte from Riley’s waist. “I’ve been told that I shall now be called Eli Law it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Eli stated, holding out his hand. He was around Riley’s height with neat black hair, and striking ice blue eyes. He rubbed Bronte’s shoulder soothingly, while leading him toward Miles. Riley turned back to his sister who was looking at the last two teenagers. They both had red hair and warm brown eyes. The boy was large and bulky, his dark auburn hair was short and spiky, while the thin girl had short choppy flaming red hair. They were blank faced while the other three seemed down right cheery.

“Hey, I’m not sure we were properly introduced earlier.” Riley tried to smile at the two red heads.

“Sierra” the girl said in a rough monotone.

“Tamsin” the boy growled.

All Riley could do was nod and try not to frown too.

“Okay. As amazingly awkward as all this is, it’s time for us to get going.” Wren broke in. “So I need to head to the super market now that we have so many more mouths to feed.” Riley watched as Miles seemed to perk up even more.

“ _Super_ market you say?” Miles nodded to himself. “I will come. I would love to see what makes this market super?”

“Oh! it’s just another word from grocery store? Like for food?” Wren responded looking apologetic for the mix up. But Miles seemed even more intrigued.

“It is my understanding that money is now a piece of thin plastic and cheese is spreadable?” Miles enthused. Riley tried to hide a smile. It seemed that it had been awhile since Miles had been in a human guise and he really would be amazed to see what existed now.

“Cool, I didn’t have enough room in my car anyway. So, I’ll take everyone else back with me and get them settled in. See ya back at the house Wren.” Riley waved at his sister and gave Miles a small smile. He turned to leave, flanked by his new…friends?

Getting them buckled into the car turned into an escapade all of its own. Neither Tamsin nor Sierra wanted to be sitting that close to anyone and Bronte kept squirming and trying to get back out of the car as that’s where he seemed to think Riley was going to stay. Eventually he corralled Tamsin and Sierra into the back seat with Bronte in between them, before leaning through the gap in the front seats to snap the seatbelt into place, feeling awkward doing this for what seemed to be a teenager. Thankfully Bronte couldn’t seem to work out the release. Eli smiled brightly at him from the front passenger seat once all the doors were closed with them all inside.

Letting out a great sigh Riley started driving home. All of Riley’s new wards kept staring avidly out the windows and craning their necks around so as not to miss a thing, but Riley could quickly see them start to pale and sit still as they started making themselves ill. “It helps to look into the distance.” He commented casually.

“Thank you. We are not used to being in vehicles despite seeing the rangers at the preservation in them all the time.” Sierra stated seriously. Riley just gave a slight nod as his mind began to wander to his father once more. He wondered if any of the other passengers in the car had ever seen his dad driving around.

They arrived home with no upheaval of bodily fluids. Riley out of habit went to jump out of the car and head towards the front door before pausing and whirling back around. Eli was clumsily extracting himself from the car, while Sierra had managed to unclick the seatbelt but was struggling with door. From this angle he couldn’t see what stage Tamsin had reached but could see Bronte wiggling in the middle while yanking at the strap across his chest and getting more agitated as it moved less with each tug. With a snort Riley rushed back to the car and opened the door for Tamsin, who promptly fell out to the ground. The large male grunted and glared up at him but he was more focused on leaping to his feet. Riley quickly leaned in and shushed the whines Bronte was making before releasing the belt. Eli had helped Sierra exit the car, which gave Bronte plenty of freedom to leap happily onto the driveway, his ordeal forgotten. Shaking his head, Riley led the way up to the front door.

“Alrighty then! So, we have two spare bedrooms upstairs, each with a double bed. And we have bunk beds in the man cave.” Riley begins as they walk through the front door.

“Cave?” Tamsin grunts.

“Oh, ah, not an actual cave. It’s just the garage but ages ago we put the bunk beds in and an extra TV with plenty of DVDs and I have an Xbox and PlayStation and you guys have no idea what I’m talking about.” Riley rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. He thinks of the strange picture they must make with the three ‘teens’ looking at him oddly while the fourth circles them, getting increasingly faster. Riley could just imagine Bronte making aeroplane noises as he runs loose rings around them. “How ‘bout I just show you.” Eli snags Bronte’s hoodie as he passes for the tenth time and herds him after everyone.

Riley’s dad had put the ‘man cave’ together a few years ago when Wren and Riley were always at each other’s throats. Then they settled things by killing each other in various video games. And then the bunk beds went in and late-night movie marathons became a thing. Those nights with his dad and Wren, while their mum jokingly complained, were some of his favourite memories.

Upon entering the adapted garage room, Bronte immediately sidled up to Riley and clung to him like a limpet. Riley frowned briefly, but shrugged off the contact and petted Bronte on the shoulder. Eli, and the red-haired siblings looked around the room. Sierra was attempting to climb the ladder to the top bunk when Tamsin yanked her off and tossed her to the ground. Riley yelped as she leapt back to her feet looking furious, hauling herself onto his back and putting Tamsin in a headlock.

“Guys! Calm down!” Riley shouted, trying to break the two apart with Bronte still hanging off him.

“It’s ok; it’s just how they are. Ruthlessness is in their nature.” Eli calmly stated, side stepping out of the way of some flailing limbs.

“Who are you calling ruthless, dreamer?” Snarled Tamsin as he managed to once again hurl Sierra onto the floor.

“Dreamer?” Riley asked, as Eli huffed good naturedly.

“I’m commonly referred to as a Dream Weaver; we spread good feelings while we sleep. Not the most bazaar talent a dragon has, I assure you.”

“Until you piss them off and then they keep you asleep until they’re close enough to kill-” Tamsin was cut off as Sierra sucker punched him and this time he tumbles to the ground. It was odd seeing a large burly male getting knocked to the ground by a slender girl. Sierra made it to the top bunk and Riley finally saw a smile flash across her face, instead of the blank look or a frown, she was very pretty, but terrifying.

Riley looked to Eli, who sported a guilty look.

“Well then why don’t both of you share this room, and I’ll take the others upstairs” Riley remarked, trying to move the conversation away from the subject of killing. Tamsin grumbled and climbed onto the lower bunk, wiggling a bit and then he also seemed to smile, liking the cushiness of the mattress.

Separating Bronte from his side, Riley grabbed his arm and started leading the way upstairs. Bronte just made a pleased cooing noise at the continued contact. The spare room was done up in boring neutral colours, everything a shade of cream or beige, but it had a large plush bed and lots of throw pillows.

“So, are you alright with sharing this room guys otherwise you can each take a room and we can see if Miles will take the couch?”

“This is more than fine, Riley.” Eli beamed. Bronte finally stepped away from Riley’s side and approached the bed. He pawed at the duvet and then one of the cushions before cautiously climbing up onto the bed and giving a small bounce. An odd chirping noise escaped Bronte as he began to roll on top of the bed and knock pillows onto the floor.

“What’s his deal anyway?”

“Ah, I’m not too sure. You may need to ask Mao, oh I mean, Miles. He knows all, or that’s what he’d like you to believe” Eli smirked, picking up a few fallen cushions and returning them to the bed. Bronte started pulling them all towards himself, until you could just see the top half of his face, his tangled dark brown curls and skinny fingers gripping the edges of some rebellious cushions.

“Well…good luck with that” Riley nods towards the Bronte pillow pile. Eli just nods good naturedly, and Riley hastily retreats to his room. The small amount of interactions he’d had that day were exhausting.

Riley flopped down onto his bed, fisting a pillow and shoving it under his head. Unlike the spare room that was all neutral colours, Riley’s room was a mix of bold blues and reds, with various movie posters tacked to the walls. On his bed side table, amongst his phone charger, books and alarm clock was a single photo frame. His parents smiled out from the picture, a young Wren held between the two with a mini Riley perched on his dads’ shoulders. Tears spring to Riley’s eyes. Of all the magic he possessed and the amazing things he could do, but he couldn’t turn back time and save that happy little family of the past. The issues he and Wren fought over back then seemed so trivial now, and all the things he took for granted back then seemed to mock him. Tears slipped down his face as he began to doze.

Riley jerks awake as he hears the front door slam closed. “Riley! Foods here!” Wren calls. He can hear multiple sets of feet stomping through the house. It’s odd to hear so much activity in the house. Heading downstairs he sees Miles and Wren placing multiple shopping bags on the large marble topped kitchen island. The other dragon teens are looking on with interest. Wren looks up at Riley’s arrival and smiles “Name brand food this time Ri”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> My writing probably leaves a lot to be desired but practice makes perfect right?
> 
>  
> 
> If you can think of any fun situations they could get into, I'm all ears :)


End file.
